Nautilus on SSD is slower than on external HDD

[Tom]

With a fresh 12.04 install on a HP DM4 laptop, on a brandnew Intel SSD, with fstab changes, Nautilus is slower than on my HDD before.

Other than Nautilus all loading is much faster. To me it seems a problem in Nautilus. Switching off preview & side pane (F9) helps... but on the HDD I did not have to do that.

Strange: even an external HDD connected with USB 2.0 is faster with nautilus !
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[Patrick Santos (milljudgement+ubuntu)]

You may want to bring this discussion over to the Ubuntu forums under:
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=332

While using Nautilus, try the following command in a terminal:
dmesg | tail
If there are any error messages in the dump, there may be a bug here. Otherwise, it may just be configuration. Older or budget SSDs can have their controllers overwhelmed by too many reads called "stuttering". Generating the preview with Nautilus causes many such reads.
If you are comfortable with editing your /etc/fstab, you can try adding the "noatime" or "relatime" option to any partition on the SSD (except swap) and see if that reduces reads enough. I know on my SSD (Kingston SSDNow 128GB) the "noatime" option worked wonders on my boot time, although my computer is probably too fast to notice any change in nautilus performance...

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

SSD: Intel 330, bought new last week, is ok I think.

My fstab is:

# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=14aaeb3b-189a-41a6-8505-3996d4e3a0f5 / ext4 errors=remount-ro,noatime,nodiratime,discard 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
#UUID=6994c661-cb2b-467e-8f42-17bdc1c44786 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/mapper/cryptswap1 none swap sw 0 0

dmesg | tail gives:
[ 1210.194559] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU1._PPC] (Node ffff880150d88910), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1210.294082] ACPI Error: [NPSS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psargs-359)
[ 1210.294094] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0.PPC_] (Node ffff880150d88938), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1210.294107] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PPC] (Node ffff880150d88820), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1210.294116] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU2._PPC] (Node ffff880150d88b68), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1210.383076] ACPI Error: [NPSS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psargs-359)
[ 1210.383092] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0.PPC_] (Node ffff880150d88938), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1210.383108] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PPC] (Node ffff880150d88820), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1210.383121] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU3._PPC] (Node ffff880150d88ac8), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 1403.456907] process `skype' is using obsolete setsockopt SO_BSDCOMPAT

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1001578

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

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[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Per comment #2, are you still seeing this bug, or only seeing it on a specific model of SSD?

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

Yes. It is still there. I will test different brand of laptop with different SSD and report back.

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

You know the strange thing is, that if I open a file with the file dialog of any application, it is blazing fast. Just the browsing of the folder from Nautilus is much slower.

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

All 4 CPU (i5) cores jump to 60% or so, for short period. Seems it is CPU bound...

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

This may be a nautilus bug. I will switch this bug over to there to get feedback.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Not sure what this bug is about but it seems weird, nautilus doesn't limit io in any way and there is no reason that cpu bound should make a different on the disk type...

where is nautilus being slow? what filesystem and view mode do you use?

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

I will come back with a Youtube.. .that is best I think ?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

that's an option, videos often help to understand the issue

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

1. filesystem is ext4
2. view modes have all same problem.
3. extra test: using Truecrypt folder is also much slower on 12.04 with Nautilus than on 10.10 where I came from. A folder with let's say 20 200K pictures takes about 10 seconds to open, with full CPU. So behaviour on Truecrypt is same as on SSD.

Again, my 12.04 install is basic and straightforward.

Maybe this helps: The only thing that I can think of that was not straightforward is the installation process itself. I could not install 12.04 directly, which was for me a first since many installs since version 9. The installer would say "no space left" or something, even though SSD was brandnew and I gave it whole disk, in one full partition. However, when I tried, installation of 11.10 went smooth, and then upgrade to 12.04 also ok....

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

I marked this my self as invalid, as Nautilus seems now fast again :) This is what I did:

1 - rename ~/.gnome2 to .gnome2.bak
2 - rename ~/.gconf/apps/nautilus to nautilus.bak

Restart Nautlius .... fast ! ))

Not sure which one of the renames (actually deletion of of the folder) solved it, but it worked. Maybe, when upgrading from former HDD install we need to delete these? Just and idea...

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

I reopen this. I just installed an SSD on my old laptop, which was still lying around. Nautilus is on that one much faster than my newer HP. Lot of CPU... something is killing it. Let me try to make new, clean user and see what happens.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

does it happen the same way in a guest session?

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

I just tried and guest session is fast, just a like a new user - good news :)

Now find out is causing the CPU kill... some old Nautilus action? Some nautilus plugins I loaded long time ago but dont show up anymore? Can not find it.... any idea?

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

renamed ~/.gconf/apps/nautilus-actions to ~/.gconf/apps/nautilus-actions.bak ... en .. fast :) I have cheered too soon in past, but for now... happy )

Will mark problem solved / invalid now... although I dont understand why this was the problem and will come back if I know more or see more strange things )

Thanks for helping me with the motivation to keep digging ;)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

that's weird, nautilus is not even using gconf in precise, though nautilus-action might be...

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

that's why I did not look at it first place, anyway, fast is fast... keep posted if slowness comes back. If not, well, then we found cause.

[OO-Dragon (chad.ermacora)]

I have had the same problem with a new install and fully updated 12.04 as of yestarday. I was using a OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD (with new firmware 1.4.1.3). I just ended up imaging the whole disk over to a normal HDD and its much better now.

Just as a few side notes, I was using it in a older HP desktop (5800 I think) that does not support AHCI, but it was a brand new SSD, never been used before, so it should of been running better then a HDD... especially this older 80GB one. I found everything seemed to "pause" for seconds before continuing. Just using unity was annoyingly slow.

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

I still have the issue... Strange is that using the file dialog, for example opening a file with an application, is much faster than nautilus....Also talking seconds here.... In general, loading application for example or running updates, the SSD is very fast... just Nautilus kills me

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the filechooser does less, do you use icon or list mode in nautilus? try disabling thumbnailing to see if that makes a difference, it still doesn't make any sense nautilus would be slower to access a device than other applications, the access rate is a kernel,driver thing, the applications don't dictate that...

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

Both filechooser as Nautilus are in same mode: list with small thumbs ( Ctrl-2).

I agree it does not make sense at all... Still... it is so easy to see, that there is no mistake... (starting from Terminal does not show any error)

What could we do to nail this down? Tests?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

does it happen if you use nautilus in icon mode?

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

Ok, maybe we are on to something:

I have folder ~/Documents with 20 items total of which 11 folder
I have ~/Documents/MyDrawings with 10 files a few images, a few doc files

Test A

1 ~/Documents is in List mode - Clicking on MyDrawings takes 5 seconds to open. MyDrawings is in *icon* mode
2 going back to ~/Documents takes again 5 seconds

On system monitor I see hardly disk activity. The CPU (i5) occupies ALL cores. RAM uses is <25% (1 of 4GB)

Test B

1 ~/Documents I put in Icon mode - Clicking on MyDrawings takes *still* 5 seconds to open. MyDrawings is still in icon mode
2 going back to ~/Documents is Fast !
3 - again clicking on MyDrawings is Fast !

Conclusion, we have some weird behavior:

a. Switching *to* AND *from* a folder in List mode is slow. You would argue, that switching FROM a folder in List mode should be same as switching FROM a folder in Icon mode, but that is not the case. Leaving a folder kills the CPU !

b. All folders in Icon mode is fast.

c. as said before, using filebrowser in list mode is always fast, no problems showing file details like sizes, icons and so on !

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

So to go back to some of the previous comments, is that still an issue only for your user? Could you add your .config/user-dirs.dirs to the bug report?

Nautilus is slower than the fileselector because it tries to be a bit smarter in figuring the exact type of the files and collects a bit of extra infos but it shouldn't be that slow...

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

I dont have .config/user-dirs.dirs file or folder...

New user is much faster, on icon and list mode.

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

Hm... I have, no idea I did not see earlier: my user-dirs.dirs:

 # This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

[Tom (tom-lorinthe)]

Created a new user, copied all data folders to the new user, and the problems are solved.
Sorry I did not find the cause, but I had to give up searching. At least I am now fast again.